The Volga Maniac Has Been Arrested

Kazan Russia along the Volga River.

Source: iClipart, used with permission

On Dec. 1, 2020, Russian investigators announced that they had arrested the “Volga maniac,” who allegedly strangled up as many as 32 elderly women between March 2011 and September 2012. So far, 25 victims have been confirmed.

The killer earned his nickname from the fact that he often chose 75- to 90-year-old victims who were living alone in a low-cost apartment building built in the 1960s along the Volga river. His name is Radik Tagirov, a 38-year-old locksmith with a live-in girlfriend and two young children. According to the Russian Investigative Committee (an organization similar to our FBI), it was physical evidence (DNA, shoe imprints) that led to his arrest and he confessed shortly after police took him into custody.

Tagirov would find a way to trick his victim into letting him into her apartment. Once he got inside, he would strangle them to death, often using items he found in his victim’s home (a bathrobe belt or a cord from an iron). He would then steal whatever money or valuables were in the home.

Prior to his arrest, Tagirov had one criminal conviction for theft in 2009 but no documented history of violent offenses. Tagirov stated that, during the time of the murders, he was unemployed and impoverished and needed the money. “I wanted to eat, “he told investigators. “I took the opportunity for easy money,” he told investigators. Tagirov also said his crimes happened “spontaneously” and that he would identify his victims "by chance" in grocery stores and follow them home. He chose strangulation, he said, because it was “quiet, painless, and fast for them. I would hold them until they fell asleep.”

Explanation or Excuse?

Tagirov’s words paint a pretty tidy picture for us. Here is a nonviolent offender who was going through a tough time. He chose victims who were close to the end of their lives; I mean, how long is a 90-year-old woman going to live anyway? She lived alone; what quality of life did she really have, trekking to the store, with no one to help her and no one at home waiting for her when she returned? And wasn’t he a nice guy to pick such a painless way for them to die?

Except there are some holes in Tagirov’s tale. Needing money might be a rational explanation for theft, but murder? It’s not like he had a relationship with any of his victims or would be a likely suspect if he robbed them. The one woman who survived his attack had such poor vision that she was unable to provide any kind of description; how much did he really have to fear from eyewitness testimony? In addition, in several victims’ apartments, valuables, including hundreds of rubles, were left untouched and in plain sight. Investigators quickly concluded that stealing from some of his victims might have been a bonus for him, but didn’t appear to be a primary motive.

Interestingly, mental health experts agreed. In 2017, a psychological profile was created; the goal was to release it to the media along with photographic images retrieved from security footage of one of the apartment buildings that were believed to be of the killer. According to this profile, the perpetrator was likely to have come from a broken home and been raised by a single grandmother with whom he developed a complicated, perhaps conflictual relationship. His choice of victims was likely a subconscious attempt to lash out at elderly women in general, and perhaps subconsciously, his grandmother in particular.

As far as the alleged spontaneity of Tagirov’s crimes, I wouldn’t think there would be many young men who, regardless of the season, carry a pair of gloves with them to the grocery store just in case. Tagirov not only wore gloves to each of his crimes, but he also spent a significant amount of time spreading cleaner on the ground to throw off the scent for police dogs.

Investigators also learned that some of these alleged “victims of opportunity” had been identified days earlier by a young man who introduced himself to various residents of the apartment building as either a utility or social worker and learned where vulnerable older women lived so he could target them later. Not a single apartment manager or government agency had sent out such an employee to any of the victims’ apartment buildings.

It Didn’t Hurt That Bad

And then there’s Tagirov’s description of his “painless” method of execution; strangulation. The power of controlling a victim’s next breath makes strangulation a common choice for abusers; it's quick (10 seconds or less to lose consciousness) and requires less strength than you might think. Death typically occurs in less than five minutes.

But don’t mistake fast for pain-free. Scientific studies show that strangulation is painful 98 percent of the time. Pain brought on by the tightness around the throat is just the beginning; as oxygen is cut off, alarm signals are sent to the brain and, as the amygdala kicks into high gear, many victims experience a terrifying panic attack. As self-preservation kicks in, many victims thrash around violently in an attempt to escape, frequently injuring themselves in the process. Somehow, I don’t think any of Tagirov’s victims experienced their attack as painless or their death as similar to falling asleep.

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The Bottom Line

There are several cautionary tales in what we know so far about the Volga Maniac. One is something we forensic psychologists learn from day one; never accept what a perpetrator tells you at face value. His or her story must always be compared to what the evidence is telling us and, when one conflicts with the other, go with the facts.

Two, a perpetrator’s back story is rarely a straight line to his crimes. The notion that a serial killer who targets young women is symbolically killing his mother makes a good story but it’s rarely true; victims are more often chosen for their availability and vulnerability than to fulfill some Freudian fantasy.

While we don’t know a lot of Tagirov’s background yet, an interview with one childhood neighbor suggests that he was raised by a perfectly normal traditional family, including biological parents, a grandmother, and a sister. From her perspective, the only thing unusual about Tagirov’s family was that the son turned out to be a serial killer. While criminal profiling may be useful in narrowing down a pool of suspects, using one to identify a suspect runs the risk of sending the investigators off on a wild goose chase. Clearly, Tagirov’s background and the criminal profile were a mismatch.

And finally, the story a serial killer tells to explain his crimes may be useful in helping us understand the lies he tells himself to rationalize his crimes, fool others, and hide in plain sight. It’s just rarely the truth.